[theme-reviewers] GPL

[// ravi]

On Aug 9, 2012, at 12:12 PM, Bryan Hadaway <bhadaway at gmail.com> wrote:
> Interesting. Do you know of any other themes/plugins that have done this? Any downsides (in your opinion)? I use Public Domain for everything I do except WP, because it's way easier and friendlier than the GPL, you can't get friendlier than Public Domain, but I'd always assumed you had to use GPL, mandatory, only reason I ever used it.
> 
> But, if you just need to be GPL-compatible there are probably hundreds of things you could do, including writing your own license so long as it stays GPL-compatible. To me Public Domain is beautiful, simply put it's "Here you go, I made this, do what you want with it. THE END" - It seems like the purest form of sharing there is.
> 
> I guess my concern is this, why aren't more people doing it? Why is everyone so stressed over the GPL if they can just release their work with no license. Are they just not aware or is there a side to this I'm missing?
> 

The side you are missing, IMHO, is that this idea of “pure” and “friendly” (scares not intended as scare, but merely to note that they are borrowed from you) is open to exploitation and potentially short-lived in an evolutionary/game-theoretic sense [arguably]. I use the GPL for every bit of code that I release, and I do that without stress because I know that it is one of the strongest way to avoid the community that I am a part of from being exploited - that anyone who uses our work will share their work with us.

I wrote a blog post about this that was picked by Matt, the last time the GPL wars came around. If you think they might be of interest, please contact me for a link.

Regards,

	—ravi